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Now a full-time lecturer in computer architecture, networks and programming and a postgraduate supervisor in the Department of Computing Sciences, he explains that he his journey started with achieving in mathematics and science at school.
“I come from a background where we were raised to see education as the way to improve our quality of life. This was strongly emphasised by my late parents.”
After matric Kunjuzwa was admitted to the University of Fort Hare in the town of Alice, which is near his village of Middledrift. “I took to computers fast and fortunately I had learnt to type as my father had a typewriter,” says Kunjuzwa who majored in Computer Science and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
First year was a huge struggle financially for him as his family struggled financially and did not have the money for him to register. “I was very fortunate that a family friend assisted with the registration money, and I managed to get bit-by-bit loans from different people to see me through first year,” he explains.
“It was a big battle, even to get enough money for food, but I managed to do well academically and from second year things vastly improved. From then on I was awarded bursaries throughout my studies, and I went on to do my Honours and Master’s at the University of Fort Hare, and then on to Nelson Mandela University to do my PhD and to lecture.”
For his PhD Kunjuzwa developed a framework for a gamified system that promotes knowledge about water use and sustainability, based on three pillars - Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP). “Gamification has been proven as a highly successful technology tool to enhance people’s knowledge in order to change their attitude and behaviour,” he explains.
Quantitative data was collected from participants in two municipalities, Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City Metro.
“The aim was to understand what people know about water, how they use water and how to improve their understanding of water to change their attitude to it and use of it,” explains Kunjuzwa, adding that this is in line with Sustainable Development Goal 6 - Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene, which, as described in the SDG ‘is the most basic human need for health and well-being’.
“I selected water as the subject for my gamification prototype because water is a critical resource in South Africa, both for our personal survival, as well as the local and national socio-economy. It is also one of the key debates at global level as it is a diminishing resource as a result of climate change,” he says.
The survey revealed that most people in urban areas do not know where water comes from. They are unaware that the water that comes out of their tap originates from a number of sources, including rainwater and springs that flow into the rivers and dams, and underground water, which is accessed with boreholes.
Most were also not aware of what the different dam levels mean in terms of the risk to their water supply, and what they should be doing to conserve water.
“The gaming prototype helps to fill in some of the gaps in people’s knowledge about water by challenging the player with three different quests,” Kunjuzwa explains.
“There is a rainwater collection quest, filtration quest and greywater quest. As you perform the tasks required, you earn points, which provides you with coins to buy, for example, a water tank to capture rainwater or piping to lead grey water from your kitchen sink or bath into a water tank or garden.
"The game also teaches the user a simple method to filter water using different types of sand in a ‘three-pot’ system’, after which the water gets boiled.”
His next step is to convert the prototype that earned him his PhD into a gaming App that can be used by all people. “I’m most appreciative of my PhD supervisors Professor Brenda Scholtz and Dr Ife Fashoro, both from the Department of Computing Sciences for their incredible support throughout my PhD,” says Kunjuzwa.
“It is a very emotional moment for me to be walking across the graduation stage as my wife, who was so encouraging of me pursuing my PhD, passed away in the middle of it. I deeply wish she could have been at my graduation ceremony but I am grateful to have our two beautiful young children, Luphawu and Awomi, and my niece Kuhle, who is my third child living with me, as well as for the assistance of a helper as I work fulltime.
I am committed to raising our children well and to contributing to the betterment of my greater family. Our family home is still in Middledrift and we go there during holidays as I want my children to be familiar with their roots and culture.”